XR TECH APPLIED TO VARIOUS FIELDS

[Anchor Lead]

Extended reality technology is being applied to our everyday lives. It allows us to look at the world in a more enriched way by providing additional digital information to a real location. This technology is playing a crucial role not only in schools but also in operating rooms. Private companies and the government are actively seeking to invest in this new technology.

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Globes created with digital augmented reality appear in the middle of an elementary school classroom. Students roll the globes to identify a country and check the weather there. They can also simultaneously get the same lesson at home.

[Soundbite] Park Wu-gyun(Teacher Dispatched from Gyeongnam Office of Education) : "They were interested in and amazed by interacting with their friends not in the classroom, but in virtual reality."

When a tablet was placed above a patient undergoing surgery, the locations of lesions showed up on the screen. The lesions were recreated with augmented reality above the patient's body by combining the patient's CT data and 3D scanned images.

[Soundbite] Lee Jong-myeong(CEO, Medical AR Startup) : "We often think ’How did we drive without GPS navigation?‘ This technology shows a map of human body not for us to remember the lesion locations but to use as a direct visual aid."

This technology can reduce varying surgery outcomes depending on a doctor's skill level and help make minimal surgical incisions.

[Soundbite] Prof. Lee Jun-woo(Ewha Womans Univ. Medical Center) : "This is very helpful to patients with complicated tumors or whose tumors are hidden among thick breast tissues."

The global extended reality market stood at 31 billion dollars last year but it is expected to grow about ten fold by 2024.

[Soundbite] Son Wook-ho(Managing Dir., Creative Content Research Div., ETRI) : "This is a field where computer graphic, computer vision and various other technologies come together. So it is important to groom experts demanded by this technological field."

The government has been investing 400 billion won to secure extended reality technologies since last year.